I Am Zeus-Chapter 56: He Knows

Hera stood at the edge of Asgard’s feast hall, silent and unmoving as the final songs of Baldr’s naming faded into the flicker of torchlight. Her crimson robes pooled around her feet like spilled wine, her dark eyes half-lidded in quiet calculation. Servants moved around her, pouring fresh mead into bronze cups and clearing platters heavy with roasted boar and barley bread. But Hera saw none of it.

She felt it.

By now, Olympus would be hers.

She could almost taste the quiet triumph blooming on her tongue – the sweet iron tang of a fate fulfilled. Metis would be dead by dawn’s rise. The throne room would lie silent under the first light, guarded by her loyal cohort until Zeus returned to crown her queen. Her heart beat slow and calm in her chest as she folded her hands before her, her gaze fixed ahead but seeing far beyond these halls.

"Soon..." she whispered under her breath, so faintly that no one heard her. "Soon, I will stand above them all."

A deep chuckle broke her quiet thoughts.

She blinked, turning slightly to see Zeus watching her from where he sat beside Odin at the high table. His golden hair fell loose down his broad shoulders, flickering with faint lightning as he tilted his head. His lips curved into a knowing smile that did not touch his eyes.

He sees, Hera thought, her stomach tightening. Does he know?

Zeus raised his mead cup faintly in her direction before setting it down. His gaze drifted back to Odin as they resumed quiet conversation, but his fingers drummed lightly against the table, each tap like thunder rolling across a silent field.

He knows.

And he does not fear it.

Hera’s lips tightened. She turned away sharply, her crimson robes whispering around her ankles as she walked to the high balcony overlooking the dark Asgardian courtyards below. Cold wind rushed past her face, snapping her braided hair against her neck. Far beyond, the fractured lights of Bifröst shimmered under a pale dawn moon.

He knows, she thought again, gripping the carved wolf-head railing so tightly her knuckles paled.

He knew because he asked for help.

Days before the naming ceremony, long before dawn had brushed Olympus with gold, Zeus walked alone down the winding forest paths of Gaia’s domain. The air was heavy with green mist and the rich, quiet scent of moss-covered roots. Thin silver streams coiled between wide oaks and pale poplars, their waters glowing softly in the eternal twilight beneath Gaia’s canopy.

Zeus walked with his robes gathered at his waist, bare feet silent against damp moss and cool black earth. His golden hair fell loose down his back, faint lightning flickering across his shoulders, casting thin shadows that curved like claws through the drifting fog.

At the path’s end lay a wide clearing ringed with towering black-barked trees. In its centre sat Rhea.

She knelt upon a woven mat of woven reeds and pale flowers, her moss-green robe pooling around her legs, her silver-streaked hair falling down her back like river water. Before her lay a great stone basin carved with spiralling runes, filled with still black water reflecting the dim canopy above.

Zeus stepped forward and knelt at her side, his breath rising softly in the cool morning air.

"Mother."

Rhea’s eyes remained closed. Thin green light flickered between her long lashes as she inhaled deeply, feeling the pulse of the roots far below. For a long moment, she did not speak. Then she opened her eyes.

"Zeus," she whispered, her voice rough and tired, edged with quiet sorrow. "You should not be here."

Zeus bowed his head. "Gaia still suffers."

Rhea exhaled, lifting her pale hands to hover above the dark water. Thin vines rose from the basin, blooming into pale violet flowers that spilled their scent into the clearing like drifting sleep.

"She suffers because we let her," Rhea said softly, her eyes flicking to his face. "She is the earth. All wounds cut deepest into her."

Zeus reached out, resting his massive hand lightly over hers. Thunder trembled faintly in the clouds above, though none showed in the twilight sky.

"I will heal what I can," he said quietly.

Rhea studied him for a long, silent moment. Then she nodded.

Together they knelt before the stone basin. Zeus closed his eyes, calling lightning to coil around his arms, crackling softly as it bled down his fingertips into the water. Rhea murmured low words in Titan tongue, summoning deep root-sleep and earth-mending songs older than any god. The basin’s water pulsed with gold and green light, flickering like dawn through leaves. Far below, the roots of Gaia shivered, curling tighter around Olympus’s foundations, feeling the quiet touch of healing run through her veins.

When it was done, Rhea leaned back, her chest rising and falling with slow exhaustion. Zeus let his lightning fade, his broad shoulders slumping faintly under the weight of spent power.

Rhea looked at him with tired eyes that burned with ancient knowing.

"Why are you here, son of Cronus?" she asked quietly. "This healing... was not your only purpose."

Zeus said nothing for a moment. Then he opened his eyes, lightning flickering behind his golden gaze.

"I need your help."

Rhea tilted her head slightly, her moss-green robe rustling softly across the mat. "Hera."

Zeus’s jaw tightened faintly. "She plots to kill Metis. She thinks I do not see it... but I see everything."

"And you let it unfold," Rhea whispered, sadness curling through her words like mist through branches. "Why?"

Zeus looked away, staring into the dark water where pale flowers drifted across silent ripples.

"Because Olympus must learn," he said softly. "They must see what she is... before I crown her."

Rhea’s gaze darkened faintly, but she nodded once.

"You want me to stop her."

Zeus turned back to her, his eyes unblinking. "I want Metis to live. I want Olympus to remain strong... even if Hera’s ambition burns it down around her."

Rhea closed her eyes for a long moment. When she opened them again, they glowed faintly with deep green light, the light of roots coiling through black earth, of sap pulsing up the heart of silent trees.

"I will stop her," she whispered.

Rhea smiled faintly, though her eyes remained sad.

Back in Asgard, Hera stood alone on the high balcony, the cold dawn wind biting into her skin. Her eyes flicked down to the stone courtyard far below, watching Loki and Thor spar beneath the pale morning light. Behind her, the feast hall rang with laughter and Skald songs as gods drank to Baldr’s future.

She closed her eyes, breathing in the chill air. In her mind, she saw Olympus – her throne, her halls, her name sung by every god.

But far away, in Gaia’s silent heart, vines curled softly through dark soil. And in Olympus’s throne room, Metis still sat upon her high seat, lavender robes pooling like pale mist, her quiet gaze locked on the dawn rising beyond the marble columns.

Hera opened her eyes, her calm mask slipping for just a moment as quiet rage flickered beneath her dark gaze.

He knows.

He always knows.

Behind her, Zeus watched from the high table, silent and unmoving as thunder rolled faintly beneath his skin, each quiet beat a promise – and a warning – that fate’s threads were never spun by mortal or god alone.

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